An innovative Line Scanning Thermography (LST) inspection method is being developed as part of a
Structural Damage Assessment System to access the health of in-service composite structures. The system
utilizes a line heat source to thermally excite the surface inspected and an infrared detector to record the
transient surface temperature variation and to detect regions of increased heat resistance associated to
interlaminar disbonds, cracks and other imperfections found in composites structures. In this study our efforts
towards the applications of LST for the analysis of carbon fiber sandwich composites will be discussed. The
LST technique provides a quick and efficient methodology to scan wide areas rapidly. The scanning protocols developed for the detection of sub-surface disbonds (delamination) in composite sandwich parts will be presented. The results presented correspond to scans of test coupons with manufactured defects.